With less than two weeks to go in this winter, the forecasters seemed to have come very close on this winter's impact.

"Snowfall was pretty much right on target," said Bob Larson, a senior meteorologist with Accuweather. "We predicted above average and that is what we got."

Larson said that, on average, residents watched as the sky has dumped 25-30 inches of snow on region.

Dumped to date, that is, and the date is important.

Meteorologists measure "winter" differently than astronomers do.

Astronomer types count "winter" as starting on the winter solstice and ending on the spring equinox.

Thus, this winter, in their view, started Dec. 21 and ends (this year at least) March 20. That is more than a month away.

Meteorologists count "winter" as the coldest quarter of the year; so it starts in early December and continues through the end of February, though there is some flexibility to the exact dates.

Credit the kickoff this year as Dec. 1; the final gun will come on Feb. 28.

In an average year, snowfall will hit 28-33 inches during the entire winter, Larson said.

The accumulations in the mid-Hudson are close to that now.

But wait, winter has 10 days to go in the meteorological play book and so does the total snowfall.

"If it does not snow another flake, at this point, it is above average," Larson said.

The chances are good the region is going to get more snow, though nothing like earlier this month when Washingtonville had to dig out from about 18 inches in one storm.

Indeed, forecasters predict a chance, though only a slight one, of snow across the region on Tuesday and again Friday and possibly Saturday. It will look quite like this past Sunday, except not as cold.

The worst side of Sunday was the bitter wind, which measured in gusts of nearly 40 mph in the Hudson Valley.

The blasts were enough to force a high-wind warning on the Tappan Zee Bridge, reducing the speed limit to 35 mph and prohibiting empty trailers and motorcycles on the bridge. All trucks, trailers, and buses were advised to consider an alternate route.

New England got hit the worst. A little more than a week after a massive snowstorm buried the region, another 4-8 inches of snow and strong winds blew in Sunday, the National Weather Service said.

A blizzard watch was in effect for parts of Maine. Wind gusts of up to 55 mph were expected to accompany the snow, and by evening, temperatures with the wind chill could feel like minus 1, the weather services said.

That is the area where Larson did own up to a failure of forecasting in the Hudson Valley — winter temperatures.

"We predicted slightly colder and it has been slightly warmer," he said.